LADIES OF THE LAKE

A fall oddity in Manitoba is the appearance of large numbers of lady beetles (also known as ladybugs or ladybirds) along the beaches of large lakes. I took this photo of a bedraggled group on the shore of Lake Winnipeg near Riverton on Saturday October 7th. They appear to be European seven-spotted ladybirds, a species that spread rapidly in North America in the 1970s and 1980s.
Apparently fall flights of ladybirds, in search of hibernation sites, sometimes get blown offshore, fall into a lake where they float easily, then the lucky ones drift back ashore.

A good general article on ladybug life and lore is on the Nature Canada website at: www.naturecanada.ca/enews/ladybeetle.html

Editor's note: Check out another tale of folklore on Lady Bugs on Nancy's Nature Notes.

WAXWING CHANGEOVER

Thursday October 12th didn't seem like much of a day for photography, but I took my camera on a short walk around Pinawa during a lull in the snow. A number of robins and juncos were foraging on patches of bare ground, then I stumbled on a flock of waxwings in a crabapple trees. Not the Cedar Waxwings that were feasting on mountain ash berries a few weeks ago, but Bohemian Waxwings newly arrived from farther north or northwest. They proved to be very approachable for some portrait shots. Note the sleek plumage and crest that are typical of both waxwing species. The rusty patch under the tail is one of the Bohemian's distinguishing features. The inset photo shows detail of a wing, including the red sealing-waxlike structures for which these birds are named. Bohemian Waxwings sometimes descend on fruit trees in large flocks; we can expect to see them around until Christmas and perhaps throughout the winter.

Sandpipers and their relatives find their food by probing in soft earth or by picking small prey from the water along shorelines. It is therefore important for them to leave Manitoba before freeze-up. A few, like this Wilson's Snipe, leave it until the last moment before departing. The American Ornithologists Union recently split the Wilson's (North American) Snipe from the Common (now only the Eurasian population) Snipe. The two are very similar, and were treated as one species for a long time. This split was quite recent, so most books list it as Common Snipe. Strong fliers, they can quickly put on a few hundred miles or much more. One large sandpiper, the Bar-tailed Godwit, is believed to migrate non-stop from Alaska to Australia and New Zealand.

Snipe are shorter-distance migrants, many of them staying for the winter in North America. They usually conceal themselves well in vegetation, so it was a treat to see this one fully exposed in a roadside ditch near Lac du Bonnet on Saturday. This is the bird responsible for ghostly ehoo-hoo-hoo sounds in the sky on spring and summer days and nights a sound it makes with its tail feathers.

FEASTING SQUIRRELS

The cones on the pine trees along the Ironwood Trail are an attraction for squirrels at this time of year. While red squirrels are common throughout our area, the larger grey squirrels are much more localized. A few greys can often be seen along the river bank, and this one allowed a close approach while enjoying its cone-on-the-cob in the welcome sunshine last Wednesday